The Yellowstone story starts with global warming, which causes a drought in this valley, among other changes. The link is global to local, not the other way around. And of course, that’s as we’d expect.

We see these issues all around the world. Robins have begun nesting here in Texas, a function of their normal nesting areas being snowbound due to increased snows due to warming putting more vapor in the atmosphere. Russian thistle — tumbleweeds — expand their range, sucking water from local crops and local species. Birds die out because their food source, some odd insect, keeps pace with local plant life, and hatches now weeks before the bird arrives from its winter home to breed. When the baby birds hatch, there’s nothing for them to eat.

All local effects from global warming. You call it a “logical jump.” Botanists, entomologists, ornithologists, herpetologists and zoologists call it disaster.

On the other hand one could assume species ebb and flow, some gaining, some losing from whatever changes happen around them. Not to mention the fact that the environment is changed by the species as the species by the environment. How wise can be the idea of transforming Earth into a controlled, no-change-allowed cage?

Ya know, when the article notes that it’s a climate change-related drought that causes the thistles to expand, and when it goes on about the thistle’s being an exotic, the question becomes, how can one cite the article and miss what it says? There wouldn’t be a need to argue about the effects if the “skeptics” would read the stuff.